title: Dental age assessment in children: a comparison of four methods in a recent French population.
abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze the accuracy and the reliability of four methods of dental age estimation (Demirjian, Willems I, Willems II, and Chaillet standards) in a French population. Orthopantomograms of 743 children aged between 4 and 15 years were used. The Demirjian standards gave a consistent overestimation of dental age compared with chronological age (+0.45 and +0.46 years for girls and boys, respectively). We found that three modified methods were more accurate for both sexes than Demirjian's method: the Willems I method appeared to be more suitable when the sex and ethnicity are both known (-0.09 and +0.14 years for girls and boys, respectively); the Willems II method was more accurate for children of unknown sex (mean difference = 0.00 years), and the Chaillet method was found to be more accurate than the Demirjian method, but less accurate than the Willems I method (-0.59 and -0.18 years for girls and boys, respectively).
authors.affiliation: UFR d'Odontologie, Université Bordeaux 2, 16-20, cours de la Marne, Bordeaux, 33082, France.|CNRS, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33400, Talence, France.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Urzel
authors.affiliation: CNRS, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33400, Talence, France.|Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, 12844 Prague 2, Czech Republic.|Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, University of West Bohemia, Sedlackova 15, 30614 Plzeň, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bruzek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019252:Radiography, Dental, Digital; D011862:Radiography, Panoramic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Demirjian's method; dental age estimation; dental mineralization; forensic odontology; forensic science; specific standards